It is important to understand that your business will not work without your employees, so that is no orders being filled, no customers through your doors, and no money going into your bank account. With this in mind, it is a really good idea to keep your employees happy and their morale high.
There are some relatively easy ways to do this; one is to make sure that your employees know that you value them by saying thank you and trying to relieve as much work-related stress as you can within their working day while helping them enjoy their working hours and give them visible and accessible goals to reach.
Improve communication
It is imperative that regardless of what type of business you are running, that information is free-flowing and obtainable to everyone within your business. Having the opinion that only certain people over a certain rank or pay grade ever need to know what is going on within your business is totally wrong and very irresponsible and could lead your business to either fail or not perform as well as it could.
Keeping everyone on your payroll informed of what is happening within your business is a must, and this is not only about when your business is doing well but also when it comes to there being problems on the horizon too. Your employees work hard for your business to succeed. They would do it as it is their livelihoods, and any failure to have their wages enter their bank accounts could be a disaster for some.
You will find that if you make sure that everyone knows what is going on within your business verbally, via meetings held weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly where questions can be asked and answered in person, you will get a much better reaction from your employees then you think. This is much better than just hiding a note on the notice board that nobody ever really looks at or jotting a few lines in an email hitting send. You may find that your employee retention rates improve, and your workforces really start to pull together in order to help your business succeed all the more.
Get your payroll right
As mentioned above, your employees rely on their paycheques and not only them getting to their bank accounts on the right day, but also in being for the right amount. Should you have any issues within your business’s payroll, you may find that it is the point of having inadequate payroll software or facilities rather than it being an issue within your actual HR department.
The HR department of any and every business needs to have the support of being able to use the best software in order to get their job roles done correctly and with the minimum of stress and fuss. It is a department of every business that has to deal with so much sensitive and personal information, such as onboarding, offboarding, tax, wages, sickness, holidays, etc.
If your HR department is not as good as it could be or there is an abundance of issues that keep arising, it could be down to your software rather than the employees that you have within your HR department itself. Supplying your HR department with good reliable software is a must, and preferably one that handles onboarding and payroll, as well as other areas, would be a good investment.
Training your staff
For any business to move forwards within its sector, there is a need for it to gain knowledge as well as experience. In order to do this, rather than hire those that have the qualifications already and hope that they are good workers and that they will look to stay within your business, you may find that educating one of your workers that you know to be good and reliable is a better way forward.
You need not worry about losing working hours from your targeted worker as there are plenty of online courses available from reputable colleges and universities alike, and by offering to pay for the course that you want your employee to attend and showing your employee what is available to them should they succeed in passing the course, you are more likely to have a loyal employee to fill your space.
This is all well and good when you are offering a promotion with the perks that go with it, but in order to be able to offer these types of advantages to your employees, you are going to have to make sure that they are at a level to be able to take part in these courses.
This is where it would benefit you and your business (as well as your employees) if you were to offer them training in the areas of your business that they are working in, the software and hardware that they have to use on a daily basis, and a training route so that they can progress within your business.
In providing your employees with these facilities, you will be surrounding yourself and filling your business with employees that are loyal, have job satisfaction, and a career route for those that are interested.
Rewards and company swag
Offering your employees rewards for jobs well done or putting in that extra bit of effort that has moved the business forwards, gained notice from a customer, or heightened awareness of your business within either the local community or farther afield can be a road to triumph. This can give your employees a real boost and a reason to go that extra bit so that they too can reap the rewards that they have seen others awarded.
The rewards themselves do not have to be big or majorly expensive, but they do have to be worth working hard for. For instance, rewarding your employees with a two-lump bar of chocolate for all their hard work is more like an insult rather than a thank you, in fact, a verbal thank you would go down a lot better. But giving money off vouchers for a local eatery or store or a hamper could be all that is required with a bit of recognition.
Obviously, there are other items that can be given, such as company swag. This may not be such a sort after reward to an individual, but if you are giving the items to teams could go down very well. The added bonus of using company swag items is that they will be advertising your business or your products, so, therefore, it is a win-win for your business. Not only are your teams pushing to get the prize so that they feel good about themselves, but they are wearing or using items with your business written all over – just make sure that the swag items you choose to give out are of good quality and that they are items that are likely to be either worn or used by your employees.
